Wheeler woke up painfully and looked up at Linka's concerned upside-down face. "Uhh... Well, I must be dead. I see angels."

Linka smiled in relief despite herself. She said something in Russian that Wheeler couldn't follow. Her voice was raw and croaky.

He grinned back at her. "I don't know what you said gorgeous, but you're not wrong. I can go from unconscious to velvet in two seconds. Makes you want me, right?"

Linka stroked his hair gently, and Wheeler realized suddenly why she looked upside down. He was lying with his head in her lap. He felt a hard cot under the rest of him, though his back ached horribly, like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer over and over.

She said something else in Russian that he couldn't follow and Wheeler froze as memory caught up. "Linka? Why can't I understand you?"

Linka smiled sadly, and Wheeler tried to move. Fire raced through his body and he lay back with a groan.

Linka pushed him back gently and spoke again. Wheeler got a good look at her hand as she did. Her ring was missing.

Wheeler could barely feel his arms as he lifted them, and looked at his hand. His was gone too.

"Yeah. They took them all."

Wheeler very slowly turned his head to the left and saw bars. He and Linka were in a cell, and across the... hallway? Corridor? A second cell directly opposite. Gi was in it. Wheeler could see another cell to the side of hers. And in one of them was Ma-Ti. Ma-Ti had not woken up yet.

Kwame's voice called from somewhere out of sight, and Wheeler took a guess. Two cells on either side of the room. One in each, but there were five of them...

Gi saw the thoughts play out on his face as he swept his gaze around, looking for the out of sight Kwame. "You took the worst of the damage, so we convinced them to let Linka stay with you. At least until you woke up."

"I remember... gunfire." Wheeler croaked to Gi.

"You were shot." Gi said solemnly. "They must have emptied half a clip into your back. But they had orders to take us alive, so the rifles were using rubber bullets. We were lucky. They used the handguns with the darts on us. We checked your injuries when we came to. You look like a purple inkblot."

Wheeler groaned and looked at his team-mates. They were all covered in bruises and cuts, their eyes were bloodshot, their noses were running, there was an awful smell coming from their clothes...

Wheeler shivered. "If they didn't want us alive..."

"We would all be dead." Gi agreed.

Ma-Ti woke up and screamed, clapping at his head. The rest of the team jumped at the sudden noise. He was screaming over and over, spinning around, nearly in convulsions.

He fell off the cot, and hit the floor. The shock of it enough to stop him screaming. "Ido." He sobbed. "Ido. Ido. Ido."

Gi couldn't see him around the corner of the cell, but she could hear him. "What's he saying?"

Like a number of people in New York, Wheeler had picked up bits and pieces of a few other languages. "It's Spanish." Wheeler croaked darkly. "He's saying 'Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone'."

"What is? What is gone?"

Wheeler tapped the side of his head. "Everything."

The Rings were with the rest of their equipment and personal effects, laid out on the table in the Captain's Stateroom. Bligh, Devorux, and Sykes were gathered around the table, picking through everything.

Bligh made her report to the captain. "The equipment in their glider was all over the counter or mismatched salvage. They came into this with no money backing them up. The clothing is all off the rack, no uniform, no hidden pockets. The material in the clothing is equivalent to the materials of their respective nationalities, so they're not being outfitted anywhere. X-Rays all came back negative, no tracking devices, no recording devices, and the only GPS was in an over the counter laptop in the aircraft. One point of interest, the camera. It's not digital, it's a straight up film camera."

"Who the hell uses film any more?"

"Well... they do, apparently. We're trying to rig something up that will let us see what the pictures are. One thing we don't have on board is a dark room."

"Any indication of who they are?"

"They had ID. We found names and locations for all of them. There's been no attempt made to hide their identities, the paper trails are all extensive enough that they couldn't be fake ID's."

"How deeply did you investigate?"

"Not far. We've got secrets of our own to protect and I didn't want to draw attention." Bligh assured him.

"Good girl." The captain agreed. "Any ideas what brought them out here?"

Bligh forced herself to smile impishly at him, like it was a private joke, but inwardly she seethed at being treated like a good little puppy. "Nothing. There's a few notes on the web here and there about them leaving home. Resigning from work and handing over assets, buying plane tickets; things such as that. All of them within the last week to ten days."

Devorux stared blankly at her. "So… what? You're telling me that five young people from across the world spontaneously decided to meet up, build a glider and take a spin out across the most isolated unnoticed corner of the Pacific Ocean today?"

Bligh shook her head. "I'm saying that's what the evidence supports. But it's pretty clear there's something unusual going on here." She gestured at the Rings on the table. "We've gone over the footage four times, I've held interviews with all the men I had involved in the capture, I've spoken to the wounded. The only thing that stands out is the Rings."

Sykes raised his hand like he was in school. "If I may sir, the evidence supports that. The footage saw the Rings glowing intermittently, apparently under direct control, and usually just before something impossible happened. I don't know how or why, but I can tell you that these rings have no power source that I can see, and no apparent illuminative properties or technology."

Devorux looked at him. "Then how were they able to glow?"

"Glow? How were they able to make the ocean turn rough so fast? Or make a wind storm that gusted my people into a forty meter drop?" Bligh retorted. "Nothing about this makes sense."

"Magic?" Sykes quipped.

"Magic is what we call it when we can't explain it. Then we call it something else."

"And what do we call this?" Devorux asked, more out of an amused desire to jab at Bligh than any real desire for an answer. He turned to Sykes. "What do we know about the rings?"

Sykes seemed uncomfortable about being under the Captain's gaze, and more nervous still about what he had to report. "Sir, we've never seen anything like this… we haven't had a lot of time, so what I do have would be largely conjecture…"

"Spit it out Sykes." Devorux snapped coldly.

Sykes gulped. "Well… sir, so far the only thing we've been able to track down with certainty are the symbols. The symbols come from various cultures, all of them ancient languages or pictographs. They are elemental signs. Which is consistent with the… Um… the powers that the wearers seem to possess."

Devorux was listening, but noticed Bligh was pressing her earpiece subtly, listening to something.

Sykes didn't notice, and continued with his report. "We have been reluctant to do anything too invasive with the Rings, but so far we've been able to confirm that there's nothing that matches these stones, or the bands. It looks like gold, but it's not."

"New elements hm?" Devorux seemed very interested to hear that. "Bligh, what are you hearing?"

Bligh released her earpiece. "They're awake. We were right. Without the Rings, they haven't demonstrated any abilities. And it seems that none of them can understand each other."

"What?"

"They don't seem to have a common language."

"How could they organize something like this without even being able to talk to each other?"

Bligh grit her teeth. "Magic."

Devorux picked up the largest ring, and slid it on. It didn't fit, so he had to wear it on his little finger. "Earth!" He said easily.

The others twitched at the word. The Ring did not glow. Nothing happened.

Sykes almost seemed to relax enough for a smile. "My people tried the 'Excalibur' test too. Nothing. It only seems to work with them."

"Why?"

"We don't know. We'd have to run some tests... compare results to find some commonality and find out."

The captain grinned like a shark. "Sykes, take the rings back down to your lab, see what you can find out. Bligh, with me."

The two highest ranking members of the ship walked down the hallways toward the Brig, and their prisoners.

"I think we should pull up the drill and move the Rig." Bligh said.

"Out of the question." Devorux said instantly. "We've got quotas to meet."

"We've also got secrets to keep. You said yourself it was flatly impossible to figure this out. Those five people who can't communicate and have zero money managed to find out one of the most closely guarded secrets in the corporate world?" Bligh explained. "It's ridiculous. They must have had inside information. Somebody talked. It's a big ass ocean, there's no way they found us by accident."

"Agreed." Devorux considered that. "But if this is what they sent after us, it can't be any of the usual trouble makers, or any of the official authorities. If someone on board is the leak, it's up to you to stop him. That is your job description, is it not?"

Bligh nodded. "I'll check all outgoing signals, just in case." Inwardly, she knew what she'd find. The only unaccounted for transmissions off the ship were her own. "If that comes up with nothing, we're screwed."

"Not necessarily. There's someone else who knows why they're here and who sent them."

"Who?"

"The five of them." Devorux said, as though it was obvious.

"They won't tell you."

"They won't. One of them might, given the correct motivation."

Bligh glanced at him in surprise. "I didn't think you had that kind of iron."

Devorux waved that off. "I'm not talking torture. It doesn't work, and it gives bad intel. The carrot is far more effective than the stick."

The door to the brig opened, and in walked the two guards stationed at the door. Once the guards had taken position, weapons aimed, in strode two more people.

The Planeteers got their first look at Bligh and Devorux.

Devorux was handsome. A little too much so, in a way that suggested that not all of it was natural. His hair was long and straight and black, and his jaw a little too pronounced. He looked like a renaissance painting of Lucifer himself, only clean shaven.

The woman was wearing a practical form-fitting bodysuit which showed off her figure only incidentally. There was a gun at her hip, and another strapped to her thigh, and her hair short and two toned, blonde for the most part, platinum white over her eyes. She would have been quite beautiful if her face was not in a permanent snarl.

"See Linka?" Wheeler croaked. "There's the proof. You keep making that face at me, it'll freeze that way."

Devorux looked at Wheeler. "New York?"

Wheeler reacted with surprise. "Brooklyn."

Devorux actually grinned. "Always good to meet someone from the old neighborhood."

Wheeler grinned back. "Bronx? You're sure not from the east side. Not with that accent."

"No sir. I'm from Detroit, but I did most of my early work in The Bronx, I guess the accent stuck."

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Just making a living, Brooklyn." Devorux demurred lightly.

"What do you do?"

"I'm the captain."

Wheeler grinned. "Who'd you have to kill?"

"The list was long and distinguished." Devorux quipped.

Wheeler actually laughed. "I'll bet."

The rest of the Planeteers had taken in this little conversation with growing concern.

"Wheeler!" Linka hissed at him, knowing her couldn't understand her, but wanting to remind him where he was nonetheless. "You can't trust him. He's the enemy."

In flawless Russian, Devorux turned his gaze to here and answered that. "I am nobody's enemy, beautiful lady. But if you wish to be mine, I can do that too."

Linka flushed, caught out.

Devorux looked at Linka. "That one." He said greedily.

Bligh rolled her eyes, as though that was what she expected him to do.

Wheeler was up off the cot instantly. "'That one' what?" He demanded.

Devorux waved him down. "Relax Brooklyn, we're just going to go have a chat is all." He said to Wheeler in English, then repeated it for Linka's benefit in Russian.

"I would rather be dragged below and shackled to another oarsman." Linka retorted.

Wheeler didn't know what she said, but put himself between her and the cell door.

Devorux gestured. The cell door opened, and Bligh moved in to pull Linka out. Wheeler got in her way, and Bligh moved like quicksilver, nailing him square in the nose. He was already weaving a bit from the damage dealt during the last fight, and Linka found herself yanked along before she could react.

Bligh shoved Linka out, and turned back to face Wheeler. The American was getting back to his feet, while Linka was kicking and thrashing against the guards holding her. Kwame and Gi were on their feet in the opposite cell, reaching through the bars, trying to help…

Wheeler had gotten to his feet and turned to face Bligh, who waited patiently. "Go for it hothead. I won't give you a chance like this again." She gestured at herself. "If you can get my gun, you could probably save your friends."

"It's a trap! Don't do it!" Kwame yelled. But of course, nobody could understand him. Ma-Ti had his arms wrapped around his knees, crying quietly.

Wheeler settled into his usual combat crouch and lunged at Bligh. She went from standing still in front of Wheeler to behind him somehow and threw the younger man into the bars. Wheeler hit face first and slumped.

Devorux was watching with a cruel enjoyment, and Linka was still trying to get loose. "Stop this!" She shouted at Devorux

Wheeler got up and threw another punch. Bligh caught the punch at the wrist, spun easily out of his reach and twisted the arm around behind him viciously. Wheeler grunted in pain. Bligh twisted a little further and Wheeler yelled as his hand was twisted violently at impossible angles.

Linka stopped struggling. "Tell her to stop, and I will cooperate."

Devorux looked at her cannily. "Ask me nicely." He taunted Linka in Russian.

Linka felt the bile warring with the shame, but she did so. "Please Captain; please tell her not to hurt my friend."

"Bligh, that's enough." Devorux said instantly.

Bligh released Wheeler and he dropped painfully to the floor. Wheeler had won too many street fights against all the gangs of New York, but this woman had him completely outclassed. Without so much as a hair out of place, Bligh left the cell and slammed it shut again.

Wheeler managed to roll over enough to look at them as they left, wondering if he really needed to the ring to make Bligh spontaneously combust.

Linka wouldn't let herself look back at him as the door closed behind her. She struggled to memorize the way she was being taken, trying to take in everything. Cameras everywhere, but the hallways were not difficult to navigate. There were evacuation plans at every corner…

Gi could see the way Wheeler's shoulders were hunched. He hadn't bothered to get up from the floor. Being beaten up by a woman was humiliating enough to someone like Wheeler. Failing to save Linka was devastating. Added to his already extensive list of injuries from the fight, and Wheeler was in a bad way. "Wheeler?" She called softly.

He was facing away from her. She saw the back of his head twitch at his name. He was awake.

"Wheeler, don't lose it, okay?" Gi called across to him. "I can't tell you how hard it's going to be for me if you crack. There's nobody else for me to talk to here any more. None that I can understand anyway. You're all right here, and we can't even talk to each other."

Wheeler rolled over as far as his back before he ran out of strength. "Sorry Gi." He croaked out. "I'm real sorry."

"Not your fault." Gi said. Kwame saw the little exchange and held Gi's hand. She squeezed it back, grateful to him for trying.

"Some James Bond, huh?" Wheeler hissed out ruefully.

Gi chuckled. It felt good to know he was cracking jokes even now, though she had never been so scared in her life.

The door opened again, and in walked Sykes. He went over to Gi's cell, looking a little shy. "Miss Takashi?"

Gi looked up. The man was speaking Japanese. "Yes?"

"My name is Sykes." He said. "I was a transfer student to Tokyo tech about the same time you did. I was impressed by your design on the Solar Car."

"You were at Tokyo Tech?"

"I was getting my degree in Energy Production. The Corporation thought my grades merited a job offer." He shrugged. "I was hoping we could speak about a few things. One scientific mind to another?"

Gi looked carefully at Kwame and Wheeler, and then nodded slowly. "All right…"

Linka was brought to the Captains' Stateroom. Once again, she was floored by the sheer opulence of the room she was brought to.

The door closed behind her, and she spared a glance backward. Devorux was the only one that had come in with her. "Would you care for something to eat?" He asked graciously.

Linka fought not to slap him. She was out of the cell, and right now, that was enough for her to keep talking.

Devorux seemed not the least bit concerned. "There's only one rule you need to understand." He said calmly. "Nothing comes for nothing. Everything has it's price. This is not a cliché, this is a fact. In my business you make trade-offs. You want allies, you have to prove trust. You want to spend more time with your family, you spend less time at work. And for now, if you want to eat something, you only have to ask for it."

Linka glared. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"A few minutes ago, you wanted my Security Chief to stop adding to the injuries inflicted upon your American friend. You paid the price by swallowing your pride and asking me. I was satisfied with that, and he was spared. I'm a businessman. I've made trade-off's. I have things I want, and I am more than willing to give things of equal or perhaps even greater value to get it."

Linka didn't trust him, but couldn't see any way around him. "What do you want?" She asked finally.

Devorux smirked. "What do you want? You were the ones who came here. Do you want a piece of the action? Do you want revenge on me or a member of the crew for some slight? Do you want to expose our operation to the world?"

Linka fought to keep her expression even.

Devorux nodded. "Is there perhaps something you want more than that?" He gestured around the room. "I have plenty to offer."

Linka looked around the room at the huge amounts of wealth, and sent her thoughts back to her grandmother, and the very little they had back then. She missed those bare cracked walls so much. "I have no interest in money."

"I've heard that before." Devorux said easily. He went to the desk and opened the lower drawer. And then he started taking out stacks of money. Many of them. "Your problem is that you think of it as money. But this is not money." He held up one bundle of bills. "This is food for your family for the next year." He set it down. He picked up another bundle. "This is clothing for a family of five." He set down the bundle, picked up another. "This is a taxi when it's raining, or a front row seat at a concert…" He set it down, picked up another. He looked at Linka. "No? Okay, something more... generous." He picked up another bundle. "This is housing for people displaced by natural disaster." He put it down and picked up another. "This is medicine to make your baby stop screaming, or to vaccinate her against some horrid fatal disease."

Linka was not motivated by money, and had lived her life without it, but she understood its power and use. She couldn't help but stare. Devorux took one bundle, slid a hundred dollar bill out, and easily lit it on fire with a silver lighter. Linka felt her jaw drop, as he opened a solid gold box and drew out a long pre-cut cigar. That bill alone was more than her grandmother would spend in half a decade. And he was using it to light his cigar, before tossing it aside. It landed on the table and burnt away to nothing.

"Freedom my dear, means never having to worry about what you burn." He cackled at the open horror on her face.

"ENOUGH!" Linka yelled. "What do you want?"

"I want many things. Most of them are not within your power to grant. Except for one. Information about you. About who sent you. I don't imagine Greenpeace has this kind of power. And the Rings… The Rings in particular are something I want. I know my jewels, but these... are something new. And something new, is always of interest. Often profitable. You could stand to gain a great deal; especially based on what I saw. Name your price."

Profit. All he knows is profit. All he can think of is money. Linka thought to herself in disgust. "Never."

Devorux seemed saddened by that. "What a shame. See, my overpaid team of thinkers say that there may be something special about you. Something that makes the rings work. My people can't do it. So we have to figure out what it is about you." He looked very sad. "I had hoped you would be reasonable about this. Hoped that you would be willing to cooperate. But alas, I can do it the hard way too."

He walked out and the door locked behind him. Linka went over and checked the door anyway. The door was a lot more solid than it looked. The portholes were too small, and where would she go anyway?

Gi was brought to what looked like a laboratory of sorts. She recognized various pieces of equipment from the Geology labs at Tokyo Tech. But what really drew her notice, was the small metal lock-box, held open before her, with five golden rings mounted inside it. Sykes pointed to one specifically. "This one was yours, wasn't it?"

Gi couldn't take her eyes off the Ring. It was right there, and she had her hands cuffed behind her back. It was right there! "Yeah. Yeah, that's mine."

"The Captain left pretty serious orders… He wants answers." Sykes said awkwardly. "There's very little pure research left. A lot of the fields out there has been chewed to death already. You can run experiments on anything to prove new theories, but the way to go about it has been done to death. These Rings simply don't act like workable metals and stones should. It's… heh, it's a very exciting time for us."

Gi fought not to react to that. She cared very little about how excited her captors were. A new scientific venture in an uncharted field was, however a very exciting prospect. "What do you want me to do?" She asked neutrally.

Sykes looked shyly at Gi. "Can... can you help? We need guidelines. Can we take pieces of it for study without ruining what it's meant to do? Can we remove the stone without breaking it? Can we put it back together again afterward? The only thing worse than not having answers is to make the questions impossible to solve."

Gi licked her lips. "I might be able to. I'd actually really like to. I uh... I've been trying to figure this out since I got the ring in the first place."

Sykes looked up in surprise. "You mean you didn't make them yourselves?"

Gi kicked herself for revealing that, but she snorted. "Yes, made them in my room. it took most of high school to figure out how to control the weather with costume jewelery, but I think it was worth it."

Sykes smiled, despite himself. "Okay. Stupid question."

There was a knock at the door, and one of the guards came in, unlimbering his rifle, hefting it. "Word came through from the Captain. The answer is no."

Sykes suddenly looked like he had a foul taste in his mouth, and his eyes flicked to Gi. "Oh."

Gi was suddenly nervous, really hating the way they were looking at her. "What does that mean?"

They didn't answer.

"Hello? Someone answer me. Is that bad?"

There was the sound of movement behind her, and she turned to look, when something slammed into the back of her skull.

Everything went black.

"Should we be worried that they only took the girls?" Wheeler asked quietly.

Ma-Ti had woken up again; now pacing his cell, restless, uncertain, scared. He couldn't understand Wheeler. Not all of it anyway, and he was too freaked out to try and sort it out. "I'm blind. I can't see it any more. My eyes are worthless. I can only see you. How blind can I be? It's all gone. I'm sorry. God, Wheeler was right, I used it too much, and now it's gone."

Kwame couldn't understand a word either of them said, but he knew for a certainty what had Ma-Ti so rattled. "Hold on Ma-Ti. We're here for a reason. We had no rings when Gaia chose us. You said so yourself to Gi. We were chosen for more than just our powers. So just hold on Ma-Ti. We'll find a way."

Kwame couldn't see him, so he sent a look across to Wheeler, who nodded discreetly. Ma-Ti was listening. Wheeler reached a hand around the bars of his cell, felt for Ma-Ti, and caught his sleeve as he paced closer. "You're not in this alone little bro. One day at a time."

And then the door to the cells burst open, and the Security Forces came pouring into the room again, rifles drawn and aimed at the cells.

The three remaining Planeteers jumped back from the bars, pressing themselves against the wall, shouting for their captors to stay calm, and not to shoot. A dozen different voices yelling in different languages.

Bligh was observing the whole thing on the security monitors. "We do this, and they can never leave this ship. You know that right?"

"Were we ever planning to let them go? The ground jumped out of the ocean to catch them! You want to shake hands and turn them loose?"

Bligh nodded. "I suppose. I just don't like the idea of forced medical experiments. They don't fine you for that, they shoot you. This sort of thing is against the Geneva Convention."

"Geneva Convention is for countries and armies and wars. The Corporation is a business. We're not signatories."

"You know what I mean."

"We aren't going to get caught. We're in the official middle of nowhere. This deep into international waters, nobody can arrest us anyway." Devorux rolled his shoulders a little, unconcerned. "Besides, they had a choice. I gave her a choice to cooperate or not."

Bligh sent him a look. "Remind me again, why you picked the young leggy blonde to have a private conference with?"

"Why not?"

"You haven't forgotten why we split one off from the group, have you?" She pressed. "It was to get information. Not to coerce… anything else."

"I haven't forgotten. What? You think I should have called in the little kid?"

"Actually, I was thinking Takashi. She seems the weaker one. Lean on the weak link."

"That's why I'm going with her second. If Petrova doesn't cave, Takashi will last for two seconds."

Bligh let it go. "We shouldn't have them here. At the very least we should keep those rings in a locked safe."

"The point is to figure out how they work. We only have one laboratory on board."

"That laboratory is for testing rock and soil samples. It's designed for figuring out the mixtures of crude oil and natural gases. It does geology tests, it doesn't study anything like this."

"Nobody studies anything like this!" Devorux maintained. "They made waves happen from nothing!"

"And we're on a ship!" Bligh yelled back. "Does this seem at all risky to you? We're holding prisoners that can create wind, waves, land, fire and who knows what else... and we're doing it on a ship!"

Devorux waved that off. "What can they do? They'll be strapped to tables."

Bligh seethed. He was so arrogant, so sure of himself, that the thought of danger never occurred to him. "Fine. But I'm calling it in."

She turned toward the phones on the control panel, and Devorux quickly got in her way. "Don't! Don't call it in yet."

"Why the hell shouldn't I?"

"Because this is our find! We own them. We've got the only secure spot, and the only people on the payroll for a thousand miles. So far we've discovered at least six new materials, and if we can figure out how they work, a way to control the weather! Climate change is such a hot button issue, can you imagine what would happen if The Corporation could suddenly provide actual Climate Control? Can you imagine what would happen to us if we were the ones who bring it to them? We call it in now, it becomes a company project, and we will never see any of this again! Give me a few days to know what we call it in as first."

Bligh grit her teeth again. "And if we lose control of this? I know you outrank me on this ship, but I outrank you in the Corporation."

Devorux put on a face that she imagined was supposed to be charming and alluring. "I remember the people who help me Bligh. I never leave my own out in the cold. You and I right now stand to gain more from this than anybody else in the world."

Bligh let go of the phone. "Fine."

Devorux headed out. "I have somebody waiting in my main stateroom. You have prisoners to move. I should be done for tonight pretty soon." He switched off the Camera monitoring his room and sent her a quick look. "See you at ten thirty?"

Bligh smiled back suggestively. "See you then."

The second he was out of her sight she let the disgust show on her face. She quietly slipped out of the Control Room through the other door and pulled out her sat-phone. She dialed the number from memory, and waited three rings until Stumm picked up. "Hello?"

"There's been an interesting development." Bligh reported. "We may have to alter our plans."

'I know all about the 'development', and I'm positive you're right." Stumm responded. "In fact, I'm counting on it."

They were all marched forcibly into the laboratory. The ship was a mobile drilling platform, and always had to be ready to test the quality and type of oils, seawater, rock, heavy metals… There was a laboratory kept on board as they could never explain where the samples were coming from, and thus could never send them to any official testing center.

The room was suddenly quite a good bit crowded, as all of the equipment had now been shoved aside slightly to make room for five medical gurneys from the Medbay.

Kwame was shoved forward first, and he stumbled against the first desk, coming down on the keyboard. He was immediately kicked over by Bligh, just in case he was plotting something, and the keyboard went with him.

A pair of guns was on him instantly as he stood up, keyboard in hand, and he passed it back to them carefully, being very controlled with his movements.

Sykes took the keyboard back. "He broke it." He complained to Bligh.

The head of security waved that off irritably. "You have replacement parts. Go get a new one."

Kwame was shoved onto one of the gurneys, and Bligh was quick to strap him down. Ocean going medical beds had straps included, for rough seas, though no wave could seriously toss a ship this size. Bligh took his arms and raised them above his head, handcuffing them there.

And then she repeated the exercise for all the Planeteers.

"So many handcuffs." Wheeler commented to the woman who had beaten him up so thoroughly when it was his turn. The bravado in his voice had very little to back it up, but that didn't stop him. "I had a feeling you'd be into that."

Bligh leaned in closer to Wheeler and whispered quietly. "Either I am or The Captain is, and since your little girlfriend is currently alone with him in his room, I'd be careful about tossing out jokes you may regret later."

Wheeler felt his eyes blaze. "Where is she?"

Bligh ignored him.

Wheeler raised his voice. "Hey Sykes? Want to make a deal?"

"I'm listening."

"I'll show you how the rings work. Give me mine back for two seconds and let me barbecue this bitch. I'll even give you the ring right back after."

Sykes actually glanced at Blight for a microsecond of thought, but her glare made him swallow it quickly. "Um... no."

Once all the Planeteers were strapped down, the techies went to work. Medical staff came in, bringing trays with syringes and tubes with them, and the young people felt their pulse rise. The guards were in the way as the room became crowded, and so the Security was drawn back to the door, waiting just on the other side of it.

Kwame watched them at the computer, and opened his hand. He showed it to Wheeler, who strained his eyes to see, and then nodded briskly at Kwame just once, immediately pretending he hadn't noticed.

When he'd 'stumbled' against the computer on the way in, Kwame had broken one of the keys off the keyboard, and kept it closed in his hand.

It was the 'Esc' key.

Kwame didn't share a common language with any of them, and they were all waiting for him to give instructions of some kind. Kwame wasn't quite sure when he'd been elected leader of the Planeteers, but he managed to get a message to them anyway.

They had to escape.

At first it was just routine question and answer. Reflex and eye tests were done every hour. Blood pressure, allergies, skin response...

Samples were taken from them. Hair, blood, mouth swabs…

It was getting slightly disturbing. There were microscopes set up, the four of them were under lights...

They were brought bland food, spoon-fed so that their hands would stay cuffed. They were released one by one and taken to the bathroom at gunpoint; the guards still watching them as they did their business, seeming unconcerned at the humiliating process.

And then on the second day, as they woke up, one of the medics came in wearing a surgical mask, and carrying a gas cylinder, and it became downright scary.

"What is this? What's going on?" Gi asked in concern.

"Where is Linka?" Wheeler demanded.

The mask went over Ma-Ti's face. The boy started moving forcibly, trying to shrug it off, but the face mask was forced back and the cylinder was opened enough for Ma-Ti to stop fighting after a while.

Kwame was yelling at the doctor, but nobody could understand him. Gi and Wheeler too, though only one of the three in English.

It was an impossible situation. The bad guys had split the Planeteers up and left them isolated without ever taking them out of the same room.

Linka had not been allowed to leave the room for a full day. Devorux had not come back, almost certainly having another place on the ship to sleep. Hunger grew and she wished she'd eaten when she'd had the chance.

And then the television turned on. She didn't do it, it just switched on.

Curious, Linka looked at it. And her jaw dropped. Her friends were on the screen, strapped to tables. They were being studied. She could see the medical trays. She could see the saws and syringes, as well as any number of other things she couldn't even begin to fathom.

A mask was placed over Ma-Ti face. A gas cylinder of some kind was attached to it.

The intention was clear. The were putting him under, and there were so many scalpels and saw on the tray that Linka nearly screamed on principle.

"So."

Linka spun. Devorux was right there. How had he come into the room without her hearing?

"We've tried politeness, we've tried threats, and so help me, we even tried bribery… Now we try something else. I've told you before, we're going to get the information we want one way or another. If not from you, then from someone else. If not willingly, then unwillingly."

"Cutting Ma-Ti open won't give you anything!" Linka shouted.

Devorux grinned. "And… why is that?"

Linka cursed herself for letting that one work. She had been played. She fought to keep herself in check. Back away from the emotion. She told herself. Emotion can't be part of this!

Devorux took off his jacket, changed into a fine silk dinner jacket. "When you came in here, I asked you a question. You didn't give me an answer. Not a proper one anyway. What do you want?"

Linka swallowed. "I want your surgeon down there to put his tools away, for good."

"And… what do you have that would be worth that?"

Silence.

"Information." Linka said finally.

"I'm listening."

Linka took a breath. "You're looking in the wrong place. The power of the Rings does not come through us."

Devorux looked at her sharply, and Linka knew she had him. "But they don't work with anyone else."

"They're not like guns… they're more like conductors. The power source had nothing to do with who was wearing the Ring."

Devorux leaned forward slightly. "And what is that power source?"

Linka was silent again.

Devorux looked at her a moment, and nodded. "Too much too soon?" He considered. "Very well. Enough to buy you some goodwill in return." He picked up a phone mounted on the wall.

Linka returned her attention to the screen, and saw Sykes pick up a phone of his own.

"We've just been given some useful information by Miss Petrova." Devorux said. "The power source is the key, and it has nothing to do with them. You may tell the Doctor to stand down from his exploratory." He hung up the phone. "Very good, Linka. Very good." He praised her grandly. "You give a little, you get a little. And since you finally seem to have grasped that point, you and your friends get dinner for free."

Linka felt the relief go through her as the orders were relayed, and Ma-Ti spared. The door opened and a man brought in a restaurant cart, with two plates on it. There was silverware, expensive plates, candles... As he set up the table and served, Linka sat down, starving.

With her first bite came a horrifying realization. She was going to tell him everything. He would take days, even weeks, but he would tease it out of her eventually. Slice by slice, a little at a time, one threat to her friends after another, he would win eventually.

And once she had told him everything, he would either not believe her, or accept that the Rings would never work for him, and then he would kill them all.

I have to get out of here! Linka thought.

Once the word came down that the Planeteers were largely superfluous to the working of the Rings, the techies and the medics left them largely to themselves. At first it was an open question whether or not the Planeteers would be left alive, but Devorux made the choice finally to keep them as leverage for Linka, and as insurance in case she was lying.

Kwame kept working at the cuff on his arm gently, figuring out how much give he could get with it. Gi stayed in conversation as best she could with Sykes, either passing the time, or trying to get him on side. Ma-Ti seemed barely aware of his surroundings, a junkie at the lowest part of his withdrawal. Wheeler tried subtly to study the fire evacuation map on the wall, trying to figure out how to get to Linka, and then to the landing boats if he ever got free…

The Rings were being kept under guard at all times.

Planeteers, their captors, their rings, and the technicians were still in close quarters, squeezing their way around each other.

Bligh was going over the files she'd been able to dig up. The complete life story of all the Planeteers. At least, as much of it as she could find.

The one thing that concerned her most was Ma-Ti's film. The pictures were not good. When she found photos of a limo, apparently taken from a helicopter coming in from above, she had to work to figure out the license plate. She ran the plate and found out that the limo belonged to Stumm, her secret master on this mission. She'd quietly taken that photo from the roll and torn it up. She didn't know how these five people were connected to her boss, but she couldn't afford any links between this ship, and her mission.

When Devorux wasn't playing mind games with Linka, he was there bothering her, looking for more information he could use. It was starting to crack her nerves. She couldn't get more in depth information without drawing attention. She couldn't even call her own contacts, or Stumm, with Devorux breathing down her neck the whole time.

"Anything new?" He asked as he came in.

"Two things." Bligh told him. "One, we finally got that film developed. The results are not encouraging."

"Tell me."

"The pictures are of ANWR. Specifically, of oil along the coastline."

Devorux took that in, and his face hardened. "They're onto us. They have been since our last drill site."

"Yep."

"But... who? Who has been onto us? Who do these people work for? There's no way they did this alone!"

"I agree."

"What was the second thing?"

"Good, because this is where it gets really interesting: Miss Petrova is on an International watch list."

"Really?"

"Suspected of connections to Eco-Terrorism."

Devorux grinned like he'd won the lottery. "Which means nobody's going to come looking for them. If they're Eco-Terrorists, they can't be caught here either."

"And if they're an independent group, it means nobody's going to come rescue them."

Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

They both jumped. "What's that?"

Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

"Is that a phone?"

Bigh went to the box on the edge of her desk and started sifting through the personal effects of the Planeteers. "Takashi's phone. I thought the battery had gone dead."

Danger! Danger Will Robinson!

"Answer it."

Bligh did so. "Hello?" She cut a quick look at Devorux. "No, I'm sorry. Gi Takashi isn't here... maybe you've dialed the wrong number. Who were you trying to reach? The Gaia Institute?"

Curiosity got the better of her, and she opened the closet, looking at the clothes he had left for her. She never would have had anything like this back home. For a moment she wondered what tailored clothes made from expensive fabrics felt like to wear... She had been left unguarded. The stacks of money were still there on the table... One bundle could pay for a whole new wardrobe...

Such thoughts seemed dangerous to her. She knew she was being sucked in through sheer boredom. There was simply nothing else to do but what he gave her, nothing else to see but what he showed her, nothing else to eat but what was given her.

She had searched the whole room thoroughly, looking for anything she could use as a weapon, or as a tool, or as a battering ram, or as a radio…

The door opened again, and Linka left the bedroom, coming out to the dining room. Devorux was there, as dinner was set up. She had given up the notion of not eating, willing to keep her strength up, though she always waited for him to take the first bite.

"So Linka, tell me…" Devorux began. "What are we going to talk about today?"

Linka had considered her options. She hadn't settled on anything yet. "Have my friends been given anything to eat or drink?"

"Yes. And at the advice of my Science teams, they are currently not worth the smell it would cause to keep them contained forever. They are escorted to the bathrooms in turns, kept under constant guard, and then returned to the Lab."

Linka felt guilty. She was sitting here in luxury, because this man had decided that she was the one to ask. And from the way his eyes lingered on her, she had no doubts about why she had been chosen.

"Tell me about Gaia." Devorux said suddenly.

Linka dropped her fork, and it clattered loudly against the plate as she tried to recover it. The damage was done. He had seen the painfully obvious reaction.

Devorux smirked, just the tiniest bit, and started counting on his fingers. "We know you didn't make the Rings yourselves. We know that you work for someone, and the only name that any of you seem to have given anyone is 'The Gaia Institute'. Such an organization does not exist. So either young miss Gi was lying through her teeth to her own family, and I think we both know she doesn't have that in her, or option two, she was making a funny joke. Care to offer anything more?"

He was more than halfway there. Linka thought frantically for a moment before she answered. There might have been a way she could tip the odds for her friends. "There is one thing I could offer you."

Devorux seemed delighted. "Really? And what is that?"

"An answer to one of your questions."

"Which one?"

"How did we manage to get organized, and work together like this, if none of us can speak each others languages?"

Intrigued, he leaned in. "I'm listening."

Point of no return Linka! She told herself. "Ma-Ti. If you wanted to get something out of us, give Ma-Ti his ring back."

Devorux leaned back sharply. "No."

Linka smirked, victorious. "Well, that's your choice. Pass the salt."

Devorux did so, and left the room.

AN: Another Transitional Chapter. This one was the most difficult to write. Consider this a part one. Part two is going to be action packed.

I was planning to release this one later, but in honor of Earth Hour, I moved up the release. Earth Hour started in Sydney Australia in 2007, and 2.2 million people and 2000 businesses got involved, turning off their lights for one hour a night to make a public statement about Climate Change. A year later it was a global phenomenon, with over 50 million people taking the pledge. A year after that, 128 countries across the world, including some of the world's biggest landmarks. Sydney Harbor, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Colosseum; all going dark to make a statement about how every hour makes the situation that much worse.

This year is expected to be the biggest one yet. I'm uploading this chapter, and then shutting down.

If you'll pardon the phrase... The Power is Yours.

AN: Slight revisions for correcting grammar. #Waves to Pesterfield#

But since I'm here, I'll also make the update. Earth Hour 2011 was the most widespread ever. Scotland was included in a major way with several landmarks, including Edinburgh Castle going dark. Pakistan did too, having survived heavy floods as a result of Climate Change. This year saw record support for the now Global Event. Turning off the lights for sixty minutes may be a largely symbolic gesture, but symbols have power, and people everywhere are pledging to go 'Beyond The Hour' and take responsibility for themselves.

I leave you with that thought, and hope you'll review.